Let Genius Burn
Louisa May Alcott may be best known for the beloved book Little Women, but her story doesn’t begin or end with her famous novel. On Let Genius Burn, we separate the layers of Louisa’s life to learn more about who she really was--and all the ways her legacy continues to resonate today. We’ll explore the traumatic year of her childhood spent in an experimental utopian community, her service as a Civil War nurse, her final years of wealth and celebrity as a children’s author--and more intimate details and little-known stories of Louisa’s life. Instead of a retelling of Louisa May Alcott’s biography, each episode in the 8-part series examines Louisa's life through a different lens--Louisa as a celebrity, writer, activist, daughter, and more-- highlighting her complexity as a person, woman, and historical figure. Ahead of her time, Louisa railed against the limitations of her gender and fought for women’s suffrage. She craved literary greatness, but was weighed down by the financial needs of her family. Through writing scandalous Gothic thrillers, she found a way to voice her own inner turmoil. In the end, she achieved extraordinary financial success, but creative fulfillment remained elusive.We’ll examine all of this and more on Let Genius Burn. Find more on Instagram and Facebook @letgeniusburn or at letgeniusburn.com.
Let Genius Burn
Alcott on the Stage
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Louisa May Alcott loved the theatre: she wrote and staged plays both at home and with amateur theatre groups; she attended plays and recorded her thoughts about them in her journals; she aspired to be an actress herself. And while there is much we can know about her personal world, it is more difficult to place her in the context of the 19th century theatre world from her primary source works alone.
Dr. Amy E. Hughes is a 19th century theatre scholar who joins Let Genius Burn to describe the culture of performing arts, the life of working actors as Alcott aspired to be, and how audiences experienced plays two centuries ago.
Amy E. Hughes (she/any) is Professor of Theatre & Drama (SMTD), a Faculty Associate of American Culture (LSA), and a Faculty Affiliate of Comparative Literature (LSA) at University of Michigan–Ann Arbor. She also serves as a Faculty Associate Director for U-M ADVANCE. Dr. Hughes is a theatre historian who researches US popular performance during the nineteenth century. BroadwayWorld.com included her latest book, An Actor's Tale: Theater, Culture, and Everyday Life in the Nineteenth-Century United States (University of Michigan Press, 2025), in its "25 Theater Books for Your Fall 2025 Reading List," and American Theatre magazine published an excerpt from the book’s introduction.
Useful links and resources mentioned:
- Amy's book (open access): Amy E. Hughes, An Actor's Tale: Theater, Culture, and Everyday Life in the Nineteenth-Century United States (University of Michigan Press, 2025)
- (open access) Charlotte M. Canning, "We the (Theatre) People," American Theatre, Summer 2026
- (open access) Anna Cora Mowatt, Autobiography of an Actress; or, Eight Years on the Stage (Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, 1854)
- Lisa Merrill, When Romeo Was a Woman: Charlotte Cushman and Her Circle of Female Spectators (University of Michigan Press, 2000)
- (open access) Amy E. Hughes and Naomi J. Stubbs, eds., A Player and a Gentleman: The Diary of Harry Watkins, Nineteenth-Century US American Actor (University of Michigan Press, 2018)
- (open access) The Diary of Harry Watkins: Digital Edition, co-edited by Amy E. Hughes and Naomi J. Stubbs
- Bernth Lindfors, Ira Aldridge, 4 vols. (University of Rochester Press, 2011-15)